Music Room Floor

Hello everyone,
I just finished planning and cutting out the music room floor.

The chevron pieces are not yet glued into place. The octogone in the center will be a marble medallion. This is the second floor I make for the music room...

 I had originally cut pieces for this floor which included a round marble medallion and less intricate design.

When the time came to glue everything down I applied the contact cement to the surfaces of my subfloor (illustration board) and the individual pieces of wood flooring. I had never worked with that glue before and I usually work in my basement. I had no idea the fumes would be so strong. I tried to bring the pieces outside into my shed quickly, but it was windy and some pieces flew over and landed on my subfloor, glue side to glue side, and they were permanently bonded in the wrong place, so I had to start the floor over. In the end it was a good thing because I'm much happier witht he new floor.

I also tested the shellac on 2 seperate pieces of flooring. The wood strips on thin cardboard warped, but the wood strip on thin cardboard glued onto illustration board with contact cement didn't. The picture below shows both test pieces with 3 coats of shellac.

I will be gluing the music room floor down permanently this week, and hopfully applying the shellac...in the shed this time.